See You, Soon

by Neal Pollack

on 01/14/08 at 12:40 PM

A few months ago, Regina and I were driving down Wilshire, late-ish, when we decided we wanted something to eat. We passed a place that looked like a converted IHOP, except that the signage was in Korean. There were a few Western characters, though, including one that read "Open 24 Hours." An all-night Korean diner! That sounded awesome.

The place was BCD Tofu House, an outlet of one of those types of foreign-owned food chains, like Jollibee, that doesn't get written up in Restaurants And Institutions. There are 10 U.S. locations, most of them in the L.A. suburbs and two in Seattle, two in Korean, and one in Tokyo. It's probably something close to the Korean equivalent of Applebee's, but to us it seemed exotic, not unimaginably exotic, but exotic enough.

There are certain rituals to soontofu dining. I was unaware of them all.

Before the volcanic vat of bubbling yellow tofu liquid arrives, along with a platter of whatever crazy meat combination you've ordered, the waitress brings sides, which look like buffet items from Mars to my non-Korean eyes. It's usually dishes of pickled and fermented vegetables, many of them slathered with chili sauce. They may seem spicy going down, but spicy-food cultures use fermentation as a kind of natural antacid, so it's advisable to eat as many of them as possible.

On that night, we got our pickles, as well as a cast-iron pot full of rice and a raw egg.

"What's this for?" I asked, holding up the egg.

"I don't know," Regina said.

"Hmm," I said, as I cracked open the egg, dropped the yolk and whites into my rice pot, and started stirring.

"I don't think that's what you're supposed to do," she said.

"Sure I am," I said. "Fried rice!"

Regina sighed as I began tucking into what appeared, indeed, to be fried rice. Our waitress arrived, saw what I was doing, gave a sigh that sounded like her last living breath, and shot me a look that said, "you are the stupidest person I've ever had at my station, and that's saying a lot."

Apparently, you're supposed to stir the egg into your soontofu.

Who knew?

Last night, my sister was taking the boy, so Regina and I had some time. I hesitate to call it "date night." Can't I just call it "going out to dinner with my wife?" I can.

Regardless, Regina expressed a hankering for soontofu's return to her digestive tract. She declared that she wanted to return to BCD. But a little reading on Yelp and other review-type sites yielded phrases like "a hair in my soup" and "unfriendly waitresses" and "the ambience of a prison cafeteria." The place had been a little bright, and the waitress certainly had been rude. I began to suspect that we'd fooled ourselves into eating at a Korean Denny's.

A conversation ensued.

"I think we should eat somewhere else."

"But I don't want to eat somewhere else. I want to eat there."

"You need to be more adventurous and not be so close-minded."

"Don't insult me."

"I'm not insulting you. I just don't want to eat there."

"Then why didn't you say that nicely?"

"But I did..."

This conversation proved that we were still married. Gradually I wore her down. The choices were two: Beverly Soontofu, which we'd been to with friends just after we moved to town. It was pretty damn nice there, but Regina had a bad digestive memory of some sort. The other was Sokongdong, against which Regina didn't appear to have an irrational prejudice. The reviews were good, and the menu appeared to have what she wanted, bubbling hot tofu soup with a big platter of meat. So that's where we went.

By the time we got to Olympic Boulevard, after sitting bumper-to-bumper on the 101 for almost an hour, we'd built up a heady post-traffic appetite. The restaurant was on the first floor of a ratty strip mall, and had all the ambience of a free clinic. But it smelled nice and spicy inside. We ordered a soontofu with dumplings, because we'd seen a woman making the dumplings fresh at an unoccupied table, a platter of pork bulgogi, and a dish of the house specialty, "raw spicy crab."

The side dishes came first, and they were way better than anything we'd had at BCD, including a fantastic dish of pickled zucchini. Then the soontofu arrived, lovely, bubbling, and mildly spicy. The dumplings were as fresh as expected. The bulgogi came next, tasting like it had been marinated in chili-spiked rice wine. Within ten minutes, we had our entire meal, including the spicy raw crab. This was not a misadvertisment.

The crab hadn't been cooked. Its flesh was blue, and the spicy sauce twice as hot as anything else we had. Pretty much, it was the definition of trayf. But there was an essence of crab in the flesh that I couldn't resist, and I haven't yet been seized by a bizarre auge. Sometimes, you have to risk eating raw shellfish at a restaurant with a B rating from the health department. I don't BASE-jump or sky-dive, so that's how I dance on the brink of death.

We left Sokongdong with extremely happy stomachs and a pleasing warmth around the temples. I hadn't done anything stupid with the egg. It had gone into the soup as it should have. The waitress had scooped the rice out of the cast-iron pot and had immediately filled the pots with what appeared to be boiling water. But 20 minutes later, she handed us the pot and told us to drink. The liquid was smoky like tea. Perhaps it actually was tea. Regardless, it tasted a lot better than fried rice.

Don't feel bad. When we went to BCD Tofu House for the first time, under some misapprehension that it was a place for healthy tofu stir-fry type dishes, my friend tried to crack the egg and eat it as an appetizer -- she thought it must be hard-boiled. They should really hand non-Koreans an instruction sheet when they walk in there.

bubblehue
02:55:09 PM on
01/15/08

There is Tofu soup restaurant (similar to ones in LA or NY), called 'light house tofu' has two locations in Rockville, MD and Annandale, VA. This restaurant is specialized in tofu soup (like ones in the review) but there are other a few items like beef (kal-bi)/spicy pork dish or spicy baby-octopus (very good), seafood pancake (hae-mul jeon) (also very good and big). They serve tofu soup with raw egg and rice from the hot-pot on the table.

Try it. It's similar to ones you can get in LA, NY or Seoul. Price is $8.95 for week day lunch, and a bit higher for weekend and dinner, I think.

For more info or review, check out yelp.com in dc area.
Hope this helps:)

esung1
01:24:30 PM on
01/15/08

play_with_food, I know that there are Korean restaurants somewhere in NoVA, although the exact whereabouts, I'm not sure. Maybe make Fairfax or Annandale as possible starting points.

play_with_food
06:52:14 AM on
01/15/08

I doubt I am going to be able to find anything like this in Newport News, but if anyone has recommendations for Richmond or Washington DC, let me know. I'd love to try it (the sign of a great post!)

monalisa86
09:13:08 PM on
01/14/08

If anyone knows a good Korean restaurant in Philly, please post. My mouth is watering now!

esung1
05:20:45 PM on
01/14/08

a fried egg usually comes with bibimbap, the rice w/vegetables and meat, with a side of gochujang (spicy red bean paste).

a raw egg usually comes with dolsot bibimbap, the above but comes in a hot stone bowl. you mix the raw egg which is then cooked by the bowl's heat.

I've never had a raw egg served on the side of an order of soon dooboo. When I order, I explicitly ask them to omit the egg.

Next time you're in Manhattan, I'd suggest you visit Cho Dang Gol. The side dishes, a.k.a. banchan, are delicious.

bubblehue
03:19:22 PM on
01/14/08

I hope you enjoyed tofu soup. Putting egg into hot rice-pot is very interesting idea and I'm sure it tastes just fine. Yes, it is more common and actually purpose of using the raw egg to mix (cook) inside of tofu soup. It gives tofu soup much milder taste (like most soups that has egg when you compare it with and without egg). Honestly, egg seems to make spicy food become milder when you compare it without egg. It cetainly makes it better, in my personal opinion.

Next time when you put the raw egg into hot rice-pot, just mix it quick so that egg can be cooked and then put some soy-sauce in it. It is GOOD. ALL TIME korean kid's favorite easy-to-eat meal:)

marjar
03:15:00 PM on
01/14/08

Korean is my absolute favorite! The stews with the flavor combinations of spicy and sour are savory and robust! I have no idea how to cook Korean food at home but would love to try.

lofthew
03:07:45 PM on
01/14/08

enjoyed the article.
i live in NYC and there are at least 2 BCD's in Queens. i don't think there is one in Manhattan.
the original name is "Bok Chang Dong - Soon Doo Boo". BCD is a local korean town, known for its infamous Soon Doo Boo, which means 'fresh' tofu, not molded, not preserved.). But rest assured that almost all Korean restarants will have on the menu the Soon Doo Boo Ji Ghae (the dish featured in the article). most of the time it's made with a meat, pork, and or seafood base, and vegetables of course. just ask the staff.

did the waitress really call you stupid for putting the egg in the rice?